I sing like a Big Mac

As we approach our moving date and Belly and I spend more and more time traversing between the city and our new house, I have realized one of the (many) great benefits of moving to the suburbs: the reintroduction of driving into my life! I always used to be one of the "drivers" in the old days--the friend with the car (his name was Julio from the Paul Simon song), the one always happy to pick other people up and drive places near and far, even though I have no sense of direction. I spent two and a half months driving across the country the summer after college, but twelve years of NYC living made me practically forget how much I love to drive.

I have done some of my best thinking behind the wheel of a car. It's amazing--I couldn't possibly imagine sitting in a chair and just thinking about stuff for more than about 5 minutes. I am way too fidgety and antsy for that, and my brain would just turn into a useless hamster wheel. But take that chair and make it move down the street, road, highway, strip, it doesn't even matter where, and my brain takes off as well. My thoughts can move forward too, from one topic to the next, instead of spinning in place. I wish I could try meditating on one of those moving floor things in the airport...I bet it would be a lot easier. Maybe I'll start picturing my meditation cushion as a moving object, floating across the water or moving through the air! Oh, and I also need to get a meditation cushion.

The other incredible thing about driving "alone" in the car (and by "alone" I currently mean accompanied by no one over 2 years of age): what a fantastic singer I suddenly become. I mean multiple record-deal fantastic. Like, a complete hush would fall over crowd in Madison Square Garden just to catch every timber of my fantastic voice. The unfathomable power of my singing voice (ONLY alone in the car, or else accompanied by like-minded singing talents/best friends) is the reason I had always completely lost my voice by the time Julio and I arrived at school. Nine of hours of pure singing sensation (plus a couple cigarettes) required a few days of recovery.

So I have realized that my singing voice has a lot in common with fast food.
In regular life, they both may leave you feeling...less than satisfied, perhaps even a bit queasy.
But in the car, on the road, they are nothing short of awesome.

Some arithmetic

Or, What I Did On My Blog Vacation (in no particular order).

Went to Vermont with family.
Minus: note to self: do not schedule family trips when two or more women involved will be experiencing PMS.
Plus: had many wonderful times together anyway.

Had a colonoscopy.
Minus: this hardly seems necessary to explain.
Plus: everything was perfectly as it should be.
Super-plus: the poor woman's colon cleanse!

Spent an evening in the Pediatric ER.
Minus: after many hours, everything was fine and it turned out to be a waste of time for all.
Plus: is there any better way to describe a trip to the Pediatric ER than as a simple "waste of time?"

Bought a house.
Minus: a quick glance at our bank account will answer this for you.
Plus: it is nothing less than a dream come true. We are moving to a cozy little cottage with a wonderful literary history, nestled on a lovely street in a town that is basically Mayberry, if Mayberry was funky, artsy, had a great farmers market, and was 25 minutes from New York City.

Got a weird infection and had to go on high power antibiotics.
Minus: stomach was temporary disaster.
Plus: skin was temporary perfection.

Had a new attack of some old anxiety that I thought had been kicked to the curb for good.
Minus: no fun, as any anxiety/panic sufferer will tell you.
Plus: a great reminder that I was in need of a tune-up.
1. Had a lube job: the ratio of coffee and wine to all other fluids required some realignment.
2. Fuel levels needed correcting: healthy food is not only meant to be purchased and fed to others as one shoves errant oreos and pieces of cheese into one's mouth. Healthy food, it turns out, can also be ingested by one's own self every once in a while.
3. The engine was being neglected, left to spin and spin on its own. When my engine is denied some basics--time to read, time to breathe, time to sleep--this is what it will tend to do.

Learned something, again.
Minus: What can be negative about learning something, except for the realization that I have to keep learning it over and over again.
Plus: Learned (again) that plans and promises are not nourishing, they are depleting. I have only the power of now.

"I recommend you take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves." -Lord Chesterfield